The blame game begins again for Pistons

AUBURN HILLS -- Once again, the Detroit Pistons' season ended sooner than they expected.

And once again, speculation about who to blame will be a topic of discussion in what may be a busier-than-expected summer for the team.

Joe Dumars, Detroit's president of basketball operations, has maintained that re-signing point guard Chauncey Billups to a new contract will be the team's top priority. After that, he's mentioned his desire to re-sign Detroit native Chris Webber, who will be a free agent, and 20-year-old Amir Johnson, a seldom-used forward with considerable promise.

"I'd like to take care of our business in-house," Dumars said recently. "And add two or three more pieces, and those being our two first-round (draft) picks and maybe another piece in free agency."

If Dumars listened to the public scrutiny levied against the Pistons since they were eliminated from the playoffs Saturday night, you'd think he would be in the market for a new head coach as well.

Flip Saunders has been the favorite target of fans after the Pistons were beaten, 4-2, by Cleveland in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.

"He's in a tough situation," Billups said of Saunders. "They did the same thing to him last year. He's the coach, but you know, could he have done some things differently? Yeah, probably so. But could Sheed (Rasheed Wallace), Tay (Tayshaun Prince)? Yeah, you can go down the line (on the team). You can't point the finger at one person."

While there were some players early Sunday morning after Game 6 who endorsed Saunders' return next season, Wallace remained neutral on the subject.

"I don't really know," Wallace said when asked if he expected Saunders to be back. "That's not up to me. It's up to management. Either way, we as players, we still have to go out there and play."

Saunders, who has two years and $10 million left on his contract with Detroit, said he feels comfortable with his status as the head coach.

Still, he realizes the Pistons have to make some changes in order to have a shot at getting back to the conference finals for a sixth consecutive season.

"We've got to go and get better," Saunders said. "That's basically what you do. Every year there is only one team that's happy and all the other teams are doing things to try to get better."

For the Pistons, they'll have to address upgrading their frontcourt depth. Dale Davis and Webber are both free agents this summer, but there's a possibility that both will retire. The Pistons are expected to try to trade Nazr Mohammed, although if Davis and Webber retire, the team might be more inclined to keep Mohammed, who was signed last summer as a replacement for Ben Wallace (who left for Chicago).

The Pistons have a pair of first-round picks (No. 15 and No. 27), and a late second-round pick (No. 57 overall) in the NBA draft later this month. The Pistons are expected to take a post player with at least one of the picks.

In addition, Detroit is hoping to get more production from Jason Maxiell, who had a couple of strong performances in the playoffs. The Pistons are also excited about the continued development of Johnson, a 6-foot-9 forward who is arguably the most athletic player on the team.

The Pistons have brought both players along slower than some would want, in large part because Detroit's success has been fueled by the play of its veterans.

"There's only so many of them (young players) you can develop, unless you blow your team up and play a bunch of young guys like some teams have done," Dumars said. "We're certainly not going to do that."

But the Pistons will look at changing their current roster -- otherwise, next season could be another one that ends sooner than expected.

A. Sherrod Blakely can be reached at sherrodb@aol.com, or on his weblog at http://blog.mlive.com/pistonsinsider/